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For years, doctors have given cancer patients three main treatments: surgery

游客2025-04-23  35
问题     For years, doctors have given cancer patients three main treatments: surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Now researchers are developing a fourth weapon: the patient’s own immune system. New vaccines and drugs can stimulate the production of an army of cells and antibodies that kill cancer cells.
    Drug-vaccine therapy may lie lifesaver for Deerfield man. Few people survive advanced melanoma, but immune therapy is giving Deerfield resident Douglas Parker a fighting chance. The 46-year-old salesman noticed a mole on his chest three and a half years ago that was found to be cancerous. Doctors removed the mole but didn’t get all of the cancer. The cancer spread to other parts of his body, including his liver, where a tumor grew as large as a baseball. Parker took interferon and interleukin-2 to boost his immune system’s ability to fight the cancer. The tumor shrank but didn’t disappear. In August, 1997, surgeons removed it, along with two thirds of his liver. Last January, doctors discovered a new tumor on Parker’s left adrenal gland. He received an experimental cancer vaccine at the University of Chicago Hospitals, but the vaccine didn’t stop the cancer from spreading to his right adrenal gland.
    To augment the vaccine, doctors at Lutheran General Hospital gave Parker a new round of intcrleukin-2 and interferon. The drug-vaccine combination has shrunk the tumors. And while it’s too early to pronounce Parker cured, immune therapy may save his life. "I want to do this to help myself as well as other people who have melanoma," he said.
    Immune therapy "ultimately will be a significant change in the way we treat a lot of different cancers," said Dr. Jon Richards of Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, who is testing cancer vaccines on melanoma patients. "It will be an equal partner with the other three treatments in the next five to ten years." Several drugs that bolster the immune system have been approved, and vaccines are being tested in dozens of clinical trials, including several in the Chicago area. Many of the experimental vaccines have been tested on patients with advanced melanoma who have little chance of surviving with conventional treatments alone. Researchers also have begun doing work that could lead to vaccines to treat prostate, lung, colon and other cancers.
    Immune therapy alone won’t cure cancer. But when used after conventional treatments, it could kill cancer cells that survive surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, researchers said. Some day, vaccines also might be able to prevent certain cancers. It may be possible to vaccinate against viruses and bacteria that help cause cervical, liver and stomach cancers, the National Cancer Institute said.  [br] The "fourth weapon" cures cancer by ______.
选项 A、replacing cancerous cells
B、boosting the immune system
C、killing cancer cells directly
D、quickening the reproduction of cells
答案 B
解析 “第四武器”通过提高免疫系统的抵抗力治愈癌症。根据第一段，多年来，医生们为病人治疗癌症主要采用三种方法：外科手术、放射治疗和化学疗法。但是，研究人员目前正在研制第四种治疗癌症的“武器”，治疗的目标是患者的免疫系统，新的疫苗和药物促进一大群新细胞和抗体的产生，达到杀死癌细胞的目的。根据第四段，免疫疗法在来来五至十年内将会与其他三种疗法并存。目前，加强免疫系统的几种药物已获准使用，几种疫苗也正在进行多次临床实验。
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